Rick Howard Company/Warner Bros
The Gotham Awards went for quiet talent and the New York Film Critics Circle solidified some Oscar front-runners, but the National Board of Review decided to spread the love around when it came to determining their picks for the best films and performances of the year. The top prize, Best Film, went to Her; director Spike Jonze took home the award for Best Director as well. Meanwhile, Nebraska picked up awards for both Bruce Dern and Will Forte as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, Emma Thompson won Best Actress for her performance in Saving Mr. Banks, and Octavia Spencer beat out current front-runner Jennifer Lawrence to win Best Supporting Actress for Frutivale Station. Surprisingly, American Hustle received no accolades at all from the National Board of Review, and 12 Years A Slave's sole appearance was on the organization's list of the Top 10 films of 2013.
It seems like Her might be solidifying its position as competition for American Hustle and 12 Years a Slave in the Oscar race, along with Nebraska becoming a solid contender for some acting awards. However, there's still no definite sign as to what will happen when it comes time for the Academy to judge the films — after all, last year's big National Board of Review winner was Zero Dark Thirty, which won for Best Film, Director and Actress, but came up empty in all three categories on Oscar night.
Check out more of the National Board of Review Award winners below, including:
Best Film Her
Best Director Spike Jonze, Her
Best Actor Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Best Actress Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks
Best Supporting Actor Will Forte, Nebraska
Best Supporting Actress Octavia Spencer, Fruitvale Station
Best Original Screenplay Joel and Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis
Best Adapted Screenplay Terence Winter, The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Animated Feature The Wind Rises
Breakthrough Performance Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station and Adele Exarchopoulos, Blue Is the Warmest Color
Best Directorial Debut Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale Station
Best Foreign Language Film The Past
Best Documentary Stories We Tell
Best Ensemble Prisoners
Spotlight Award Career Collaboration of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio
NBR Freedom of Expression Award Wadjda
Creative Innovation in Filmmaking Award Gravity
Top Films (Alphabetically)12 Years a SlaveFruitvale StationGravityInside Llewyn DavisNebraskaPrisonersSaving Mr. BanksThe Secret Life of Walter MittyThe Wolf of Wall Street
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Spike Jonze's acclaimed new film Her has been given a big Oscar boost after picking up America's National Board of Review's Best Film of 2013. Jonze has also been honoured as Best Director for the film, which stars Joaquin Phoenix, who missed out on the Best Actor trophy to Nebraska's Bruce Dern.
Emma Thompson's role as Mary Poppins creator P.L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks has landed her the Best Actress award, while Dern's co-star Will Forte and Fruitvale Station's Octavia Spencer have scored the Best Supporting Actor and Actress honours.
Fruitvale Station's leading man Michael B. Jordan has been named the Breakthrough Performance of the year, and the film's director Ryan Coogler has been awarded the Best Directorial Debut prize.
The full list of winners is:
Best Film: Her
Best Director: Spike Jonze, Her
Best Actor: Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Best Actress: Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks
Best Supporting Actor: Will Forte, Nebraska
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, Fruitvale Station
Best Original Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis
Best Adapted Screenplay: Terence Winter, The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Animated Feature: The Wind Rises
Breakthrough Performance: Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station
Breakthrough Performance: Adele Exarchopoulos, Blue is the Warmest Color
Best Directorial Debut: Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale Station
Best Foreign Language Film: The Past
Best Documentary: Stories We Tell
William K. Everson Film History Award: George Stevens, Jr.
Best Ensemble: Prisoners
Spotlight Award: Career Collaboration of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio
Creative Innovation in Filmmaking Award: Gravity

12 Years A Slave, American Hustle and Gravity look set to dominate the International Press Academy's 2014 Satellite Awards after scoring the bulk of the nominations. Steve McQueen's acclaimed drama, about a black man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the 1800s, leads the list with 10 nods, followed by American Hustle and Gravity with eight apiece.
All three films will compete for the coveted Best Motion Picture prize along with Inside Llewyn Davis, Philomena, The Wolf of Wall Street, Saving Mr. Banks, All Is Lost and Blue Jasmine.
12 Years a Slave's star Chiwetel Ejiofor is nominated for the Actor in a Motion Picture trophy and he will compete against Robert Redford (All Is Lost), Christian Bale (American Hustle), Tom Hanks, (Captain Phillips), Bruce Dern (Nebraska), Matthew McConaughey, (Dallas Buyers Club), and Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street).
Gravity star Sandra Bullock will fight for the best actress award alongside Meryl Streep (August: Osage County), Dame Judi Dench (Philomena), Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Adele Exarchopoulos (Blue Is the Warmest Color), and Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks).
The best directing category includes Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine), Ethan and Joel Cohen (Inside Llewyn Davis), Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity), Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips), Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), David O. Russell (Hustle), and Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street).
In the TV categories, popular drama Breaking Bad topped the list of nominees with four, along with House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.
Special honours will go to moviemaker Ryan Coogler for Fruitvale Station, while his movie's star Michael B. Jordan will receive a breakthrough performance award along with The Book Thief's Sophie Nelisse. Nebraska has been named Best Ensemble, Motion Picture; and Orange Is the New Black landed Best Ensemble, Television.
The Satellite Awards ceremony will be held on 9 March (14) in Los Angeles.

Actor Colin Farrell threw a bizarre dinner party for his Saving Mr. Banks co-stars Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson - the evening's entertainment was a screening of kids' classic Mary Poppins. The Irishman plays an alcoholic father in the new comedy, which tells the story of Mary Poppins writer P. L. Travers' meetings with Walt Disney as they planned the movie of her book.
Farrell was disappointed to realise he would not be sharing any scenes with Thompson, who plays Travers, or Hanks, who takes the role of Disney, so he invited them to his Los Angeles home for a meal and a viewing of the 1964 musical instead.
Farrell tells U.K. chat show host Graham Norton, "I knew I wasn't going to get to work with any of them so threw a dinner party at my house. We all ended up watching Mary Poppins. Everyone was in the living room watching, it was cool. Well maybe not that cool, but it was fun."

Octavia Spencer left acting royalty Julia Roberts and Emma Thompson stunned when she revealed plans to revive one of their favourite TV shows Murder, She Wrote during a recent round table interview. The three movie stars gathered for an in-depth chat about their craft with The Hollywood Reporter and The Help star thrilled her fellow Oscar winners when she confirmed her new TV role.
News of the series revival and original star Angela Lansbury's opposition to the project has been documented in the media for weeks, but it appears the news didn't reach Thompson and Roberts.
As Spencer revealed the details of her new TV role, Roberts said, "Wait a minute, Murder, She Wrote is still on TV?" And Thompson followed up with, "Are you going to be Angela Lansbury?"
The Help star explained she signed on for the role in the revamp to try something new, adding, "I'm a short, cute, chubby woman. There are fewer and fewer roles that I haven't done already, or archetypes that I haven't played, and to break out of that box, the most interesting stuff is television."

"I did a musical for 15 months, during which I had to be incredibly cheerful, and after six months I was clinically depressed. Seriously. You have no life. Literally... you have the energy for the show. It's singing, it's dancing, neither of which I was properly trained in, so I was terrified anyway, and then you can't go out, you can't drink." Actress Emma Thompson doesn't have fond memories of her West End theatre stint in Me & My Girl in the mid 1980s.

"I've snogged (kissed) her and what I learned was, you have to use tongues even if you're not a lesbian... We had to do a snog. The angel gives her an orgasm in Angels in America. (Director) Mike Nichols can get anyone to do anything." Emma Thompson on kissing Meryl Streep.

"My father married my mother (actress Phyllida Law), and my grandmother locked herself in the toilet for a couple of days because 'actress' was still synonymous with 'whore'." Emma Thompson on her mother's struggles as an actress in the 1950s.

British actress Emma Thompson opened up about the dark side of Hollywood during a special British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) event on Sunday (24Nov13). The Oscar-winner was the subject of a Life in Pictures retrospective at BAFTA's headquarters in London, and during a question-and-answer session, she took the opportunity to scold big names stars for perpetuating a "hierarchical" system which favours the most famous.
Thompson insisted she was probably the only star to ever ask for a smaller trailer, adding, "The star system is not a good system. It's all hierarchical. I think that's just revolting. It is revolting for actors to become grand... and unattractive to watch."
She also claimed Hollywood "always finds a way to make you feel bad... (At parties, there is) always some bit that's penned off that you're not allowed into... (It is the) better than/less than judgment you're making upon yourself and others that Hollywood is particularly good at and that's the one thing I really hate."
However, Thompson went on to single out two actors who have remained grounded and eager to work hard: "Dustin Hoffman is as exquisite as Anthony Hopkins."
She recalled an incident while working on Last Chance Harvey with Hoffman when the actor's car became stuck in traffic, so he walked to the set in just his socks, adding, "He just wants to do it (act) so much... Those are the people you want to work with. You find some young actors who really can't be bothered and you think well, let someone else do it."
At the end of the session, Thompson was asked a question by a young woman who told the star she had just finished her first film script, so the actress asked her assistant to get the girl's details so she could read over the screenplay for her.

Title

Appeared on ABC sitcom "Ellen" as a British actress named 'Emma Thompson' who reveals she is a lesbian from Ohio

Voiced Queen Elinor in Disney Pixar animated feature "Brave"

Hosted and wrote own BBC-TV comedy-variety series "Thompson"

Cast opposite Kenneth Branagh in stage revival of "Look Back in Anger"; directed by Judi Dench

Made film debut in "The Tall Guy"

Cast as the wife of a presidential candidate (John Travolta) in Mike Nichols directed "Primary Colors"

Returned to acting in Mike Nichols' TV adaption of Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Wit" (HBO), playing a professor who develops ovarian cancer; also co-wrote screenplay with Nichols; earned Emmy nominations for writing and acting

Met while filming "Sense and Sensibility" (1995); Married July 29, 2003

Gaia Wise

Daughter

Born Dec. 4, 1999; father, Greg Wise

Education

Name

University of Cambridge

Camden School for Girls

Notes

Thompson has stated that she kept her Best Actress Oscar (for 1992's "Howards End") in the bathroom of her home.

"Emma is sane. She also has intelligence, tremendous acting talent and terrific style. She's funny and fun to be with – always." – director James Ivory to USA Today, March 14, 1994

"In England, they love it when you fail. One feels vaguely embarrassed about success here [in London]. It's a great relief to go to America where they're fond of you when you succeed. But if I had a socking failure, I'd rather be here. The British are not cruel. They love underdogs – it's top dogs we don't like." – Thompson to The New York Times, Nov. 20, 1994

"There is something very uncomfortable about taking this strange, ephemeral thing called fame and plunking it in some other arena and saying, 'Look at this, look at this.' I think I'm a brave person and have never ever not stood up to be counted, but to be a performer and then to step sideways into a political arena somehow fells wrong." – Thompson on mixing politics and show business to The Los Angeles Times, Dec. 10, 1995

"Look, this question of gossip is interesting. In some form it isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's to do with people trying to work out how to live their lives. For God's sake, look at Jane Austen! It's possible that gossip is a first step, that way in which we try to discover ourselves." – Thompson quoted in Vanity Fair magazine, February 1996

"Part of growing up, it has occurred to me – while I was sitting on the loo yesterday – is admitting to WHAT YOU ARE. I think that certainly during my 20s, my intelligence and my articulateness were very important to me. I thought I was much stronger than I am. I was frightened of being 'feminine,' because that seemed a weakness." – Thompson quoted in Vanity Fair magazine, February 1996

On her relationship with her mother, Thompson told The New York Times (Dec. 21, 1997): "In my 20's I was domestically unbound, so I spent a lot of time with my mother, and our relationship moved sideways away from the typical mother-daughter thing. In a sort of subterranean way, though, I rely on her approval more than any body's, and if I feel her disapproval, it has a profound effect on me."

"I'm a character actress. Nobody is going to ask me to play the romantic roles, I don't have the right kind of face. I've got too many teeth." – Thompson to The Chicago Sun-Times, March 18, 1998